Re: Upgrading Memory with HP SR2172NX - Problems!

What about CAS latency differences? It was difficult to find an OEM Hynix RAM so I have a different stick (Crucial RAM). A guy I talked to says different CAS latencies sometimes cause problems, where only slot 1 will register if the CAS's between the 2 sticks are different. I'm sure my 2 sticks have different CAS.

I guess I will try to find 2 matching PC2 4200U 1GB sticks. Note that I purchased a Kingston DDR2 1GB stick today at Frys and machine will not start with it individually or as a pair. I suspect CAS is out of whack. Investigation continues.

Re: Upgrading Memory

My guess is that your new stick will not work based on gohokies previous replies. Since it will message @ 4200 anyway, I still think you should try to find 4200 DIMMS. Local computer shops might have some used at decent prices. CAS latency is more about trying to squeak performance on high end machines and it's more of a data race to the next clock cycle on the system bus. I haven't seen where it has caused compatibility issues before - but hey - this one is a mystery - maybe.

... an HP employee expressing his own opinion.Please post rather than send me a Message. It's good for the community and I might not be able to get back quickly. - Thank you.

Re: Upgrading Memory

Re: CAS mismatches, the tech at the Omax store I went to said he's been building computers for quite some time, and he only saw this memory problem with mismatched CAS, where slot 2 is not recognized. I will run exactly the same Crucial RAM in both slots and then see the results. If they don't work (and btw they are recommended for this machine), both go back to Crucial. Will let you know when it arrives and I try it, probably Saturday at this point.

Re: Upgrading Memory

Coincidentally enough, I seem to have encountered a similar problem this evening when I tried to upgrade the memory on my son's HP Pavilion DV2225nr laptop. He had two 512m chips which were working fine but slow. I replaced them this evening with two 1gb chips (DDR-II 667MHz.) However, the PC only registered 1GB of ram. I then used just one chip at a time and it still registered 1 GB. Both chips worked individually. The OS is VISTA (32 bit, I think). Tomorrow I may try and mix and match the 512s with a 1GB chip, but it is confusing.

Re: Upgrading Memory

Crucial site says this RAM should work. I wonder what we are all missing here? I looked in my BIOS and couldn't find anything to say "if 2 sticks of RAM are present with similar tolerances use them both on startup for a total of 2GB". If my 2nd matching stick of Crucial RAM arrives and they don't work as a pair I will be calling Crucial to see if they have any insight into this issue.

Re: Upgrading Memory

I searched for some PC2-4200 DIMMS this weekend and couldn't locate one. I did call Crucial today and they told me that the ATI chip set on our board won't support high density (e.g. Crucial 5300 memory) and low density (e.g. the 1GB memory module that came with the SR2172NX) chips together. So he thought my choice is to either track down 4200 memory (Crucial doesn't sell any more) or to pair two 5300 high denisty modules. My only hesitation in getting two 5300 modules is that I had bought a Kingston KVR667D2/1GR Value RAM and it did not get recognized when paired with the Crucial RAM (I'm assuming they are both high density but am not 100% certain).

HP_SR2172NX - did you ever get two of the same modules working together in your SR2172NX? I did just notice the specs you copied in your last post say they are 200-pin DIMMs which will not work in the 240-pin slots of the SR2172NX. What I see from Crucial is part # CT663717.

Re: Upgrading Memory

I purchased a 2nd exact match from crucial (1GB 240-PIN DIMM 128Mx64 DDR2 PC2-5300 UNBUFF: CT12864AA667.8FE) and fired up my SR2172NX, the machine *DOES* recognize the 2GB of RAM and it is working fine.

I have 2 matched sets of Crucial RAM (2 1GB sticks of RAM), exact part number CT12864AA667.8FE, my machine is now running much better and not swapping constantly anymore (Vista is a dog on RAM, almost 800 MB RAM consumed at IDLE).